OIMB GK12 CURRICULUM Kindergarten
30 minutes
METAMORPHOSIS - FROG LIFE CYCLE
Oregon Science Content Standards:
K.1 Structure and Function: The natural world includes living and non-living things.
K.1P.1 Compare and contrast characteristics of living and non-living things.
K.2 Interaction and Change: Living and non-living things move.
K.2P.1 Examine the different ways things move
Goal: to understand that animals can change throughout their lives
Concepts:
! Frogs develop from eggs to tadpoles to adults. This series of changes over the life of an
organism is called a life cycle.
! A major change in form from one stage to the next is called metamorphosis.
Materials:
! Live tadpoles (optional)
! Tale of a Tadpole by Karen Wallace, or other suitable tadpole book
! Frog worksheets for each student
! Scissors and glue for each student
Lesson Plan:
1. If available, bring in live tadpoles for the students to look at. Have the students observe
how the tadpoles move. Point out the gills and describe how tadpoles breathe using gills.
2. Meet on the carpet and read Tale of a Tadpole by Karen Wallace. Allow students to
make observations and point out the tadpoles’ new changes on each page (they’ll be very
excited to do this.)
3. After the story, ask for three quiet volunteers to come to the front of the class. Turn one
into an egg, one into a tadpole, and one into a frog and have them act out these roles.
Explain that, together, all the parts of a frog’s life make up its lifecycle. Mix up the three
students, and review the lifecycle by having the class put the students back in order from
egg to tadpole to frog. If you wish, the class as a whole may then act out the lifecycle.
4. Before leaving the carpet, explain to the students that they will make their own diagram
of a frog’s lifecycle, which they are to color, cut, and glue, in that order. Show an
example.
5. At their desks, students color and cut out the frog’s lifecycle worksheets. You may wish
for them to raise their hands before gluing.
Assessment: Assess whether the students glue the life stages in the proper order.
GK12 Fellows: Christina Geierman and Greg Gavelis; Teacher Beth Bennison